Moores soldier on to get flag raised

Phil Gianficaro Columnist @philgianficaro

Thursday

Mar 27, 2014 at 12:01 AM

“Big Jim” Barth phoned to ask how they sleep at night. He wondered how members of the Bordentown City Veterans Memorial Committee can have sweet dreams after shoveling more pain onto Amy and Pat Moore, a grieving Gold Star family formerly from the city.

“If the people on that committee put themselves in the Moores’ shoes, I guarantee they’d feel a lot different about flying that flag,” said Barth, a resident. “A lot different.”

Each email and phone call I’ve received regarding my recent column condemning the committee for rejecting the Moores’ request to fly an Honor and Remember flag at the memorial included a common theme: What’s the harm in flying the flag?

In addition to a litany of lame excuses, the committee determined that flying the flag at the memorial would violate sections of the U.S. flag code; in fact, it does not. The Moores made the request not only for their son, Army Pfc. Benjamin G. Moore, a native who was killed in Afghanistan in January 2011, but also in memory of all U.S. military personnel killed since the Revolutionary War.

New Jersey is among 19 states to have adopted the Honor and Remember flag, which seems lost on the veterans committee. But while the Moores have been turned away at that door, they’re using their hurt and anger as fuel. If Chairman Bruce Throckmorton and his committee don’t believe it’s important enough to fly the flag in memory of the couple’s son and other war dead, the Moores are hopeful other towns will.

“Our mission will continue,” wrote Amy Moore, of Robbinsville, Mercer County, in an email this week. “We have a vision of seeing this flag fly under or next to every POW-MIA flag across the country. We are now presenting the flag to other municipalities.”

The Moores will present Honor and Remember flags to Hamilton Mayor Kelly Yaede and Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried. The family has presented a flag to the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Cemetery in North Hanover. Sen. Diane Allen, of Edgewater Park, Sen. Linda Greenstein, of Cranbury, and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo, of Hamilton, are working with the Moores to get the flag flying, or at least displayed, at the Statehouse.

“We’re moving forward,” Amy Moore said. “Hopefully, they’ll see they made a mistake and eventually do the right thing and fly the flag.”

One email I received was from Susan Peterson, who founded New Hampshire’s chapter of the Honor and Remember Foundation, a nonprofit that raises money to buy personalized flags for Gold Star families.

“We face the same issues with our state veterans advisory committee,” Peterson said. “We are on our third attempt to have New Hampshire adopt the Honor and Remember flag. We fight the same nonsense each year with the misinformation. The more the facts are presented, the more they push back or move on to other objections.

“Personally, they all can have their opinions of the flag. But to use false statements and the bully pulpit is disgusting and not honoring the sacrifices of the military service member and the continued sacrifice of the families. Thanks for your column, and may the honorable happen.”

The Bordentown City Veterans Memorial is an honorable tribute to those native sons who died in war. But it’s missing something.

Much like the committee members themselves.

Phil Gianficaro can be reached at

215-345-3078, pgianficaro@calkins.com

or @philgianficaro on Twitter.

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